Valve regulator



.April 8, 1924. 1,490,068 O. E. FREEMAN VALVE REGULATOR Filed April 2, 1923 s: 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor:

' flacarljleemwn April 8, 1924. 1,490,068

0. E. FREEMAN VALVE REGULATOR Filed April 2,1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 scarlfleeman Patented Apr. 8, 1924.

U H if; "I E inane one OSCAR E. FREEMAN, F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-THIRD TO HENRY. I-IONAKER AND ONE-THIRD TO U. 0. NORCDENSSON, BOTH OF LOS ANGELES,

CALIFORNIA.

Application filed April 2,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR E. FREEMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Valve Regulators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in valve regulators. It has been found desirable to regulate the supply of air, steam, gas and liquid fuel mediums to burners and various prime movers and to provide such regulation that may be adjusted from time to 1 time to properly and most effectively control the supply. During the regulating movement of draft means for steam furnaces, for example, it is desirable to regulate the supply of steam, air and fuel, or any one or 2 two thereof, to oil and gas burners, said regulation being in exact accordance with the amount of draft and sufliciently gradual to afford smooth and effective operation. This regulation must also be adjustable at any time to accord with the pressure and quality of the fuel, air, steam or other medium employed. It has also been found desirable to regulate this supply in the manner stated with a degree of fineness which will facili- 3 tate the economical operation of the burner, a rough approximation not permitting such operation. These same results are also desirable in connection with stokers for governing the supply of steam to the power ele-' 36 ment in relation to the draft, with internal combustion engines for supplying air and fuel according to speed of operation and with various other devices.

My invention is adapted to produce these beneficial results in an effective manner and by simple and inexpensive means. The invention also combines into single unit form one or a plurality of controls forioil, steam, air and any other medium or mixture sup-, ply to fuel burners or other devices." It is also adapted to govern speed controland may be sufficiently modified for that purpose within the spirit of my invention.

In the accompanying drawings forming. part of these specifications, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a' boiler furnace showing my invention applied thereto; Fig.; 2 is a front elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of my ad improved valve regulator, part of the struc- VALVE REGULATOR.

1923. Serial N0. 629,371.

ture being broken away and in section, and Fig. 4 is a plan of the invention, part of the structure being in section taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 3.

For convenience in describing the construction and operation of my invention, I have shown the same applied to a boiler furnace, A indicating a boiler front, B the draft door which is hinged at 10 to open and close, and C an oil burner of usual construction, to which fuel, oil and air or steam are adapted to be fed by the usual supply pipes 11 and 12. said pipes being controlledby regulating valves D and E, respectively. However it should be understood that the door B merely represents the equivalent of anydriving element with the operation of which it is desired to operate one orany number of valves or their equivalents, in 'synch ronism." The construction shown, therefore, is designed double in form to govern the operation of two valves, one for each of the supply-inediums fed to the burner but it may be single in form or construction to operate but one.

Each valve has an actuating element in the form of a valve stem 13, which is adapted to reciprocate outwardly and inwardly to open and close the valve, the structure of the valve being of any suitable design. Secured tothe valves D and E by unions 14 and 15 is a coupling or supporting body 16, having glands 17 through which the stems slide. The supportingbody is formed with a pair of forwardly extending arms 18 and 19, on theouter ends of which are two cylindrical containers 20 and 21, which are reinforced by the bridge piece 22. The containers receive piston guides 23 which arefree to reciprocate longitudinally therein," said guides being attached to the valve stems 13 and carrying on their outer ends antifriction rollers 24: and 25. The piston guides areforced outwardly by, expansion springs 26 in the containers tov open the valves, said valves thusbeing closed by a'spring depressing movement against the antifriction rollers.

A suitable lever element F is provided for co-operation with the antifriction rollers 24.- and 25 to effect the opening and closing of the valves. The construction shown re sembling a double quadrant frame 27 is supported by two arms 28 and 29, which in turn are pivoted upon the body 16 by bolts 30 so that th quadrant frame will turn about said body as an axis and swing about the outer ends ofthe valve stems. The double quadrant frame is formed with a pair of parallel channels 31 and 322 describing arcs about the axis of the lever clement in which are held two flexible blades 33 and 3% acting as, what I have chosen to term, flexible lever edges, against the antifriction rollers to effect the opening and closing of the valves as the lever element swings back and forth about its axis. Each flexible lever edge is held in adjusted position in its channel by a plurality of yoke pieces 35, which are movably supported to be adjusted toward or away from the axis ofthe lever element by adjusting bolts threaded thereinto. These bolts have heads 37 to which a key (not shown) may be applied to effect the adjustment of the flexible lever blades. Thus the lever blades are subjected to fine adjustment, to effect a gradual or abrupt opening of the valves. Each blade may also be adjusted with an undulatinglever edge to successively open and close a valve during a stroke of the lever edge. The valves are thus subjected to delicate adjustment and said adjustment may be easily and quickly changed from time to time to effect more ellicient supply of oil, air and steam to the burner.

' Any suitable driving element, which in the structure shown is the draft door,'is coupled to the'lever element F by the connecting rod 39, said rod being pivotally attached to the arm 28 of the double quadrant frame by the pin 40 and pivotally attached to a crankarm 41 on a shaft 42, to rock said shaft. This coupling mechanism for the quadrant may v be duplicated on opposite sides for compensating any binding tendency. The shaft 42 is journaled in bearings 43 on the boiler front above the draft door and is rocked by the movement of the door through the short connecting rod el ct which is pivoted to a crank arm-45 on the shaft an to an arm 46 on the draft door by the coupling 47. Thus as the door is opened or closed to regulate the draft, either directly by hand or by any suitable regulating means, the lever element F is moved and through the action of the flexible lever edges the valves areoperated to feed fuel or other medium to the burner" in synchronisin'therewith as desired. During the regulating movement of the'lever element, the antifriction'rollers are held in free roll ing contact with the lever edge'elements by the pindS and slot 4-9 connection in the containers 20. Also during the regulating movement, the pointer 50, which is mounted upon the cross bar 22 and remains stationary serves to indicate the position of the'rollers against the flexible adjusting lever edge element's'so that it is easily determined which screws should be adjusted todirectly effect the valves.

Various applications ofmy invention in single or plural form are apparent either for synchronizing the feed of fuel or other medium with a draft door or other driving? elen'ient or .r any other urpose desired.

In accordance with the patent statutes, have described the priciples of operation or my invention together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the construction shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be turried out by other means and ap 'ilied to uses other than those above set forth within the scop of tlicfollowing claims.

Having drs-ribed my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters- Patent is:

l. A valve regulator, comprising a driven el ment, vs having an actuating element, aframe pivotally mounted on said valve and provided with a curved arm. means for connecting said arm with said driven element a regula n element carried by said :11 and formed 1- 1 an adjustable undulating surface associated with said actuating element to effect va iable operation of the latter.

2. Apparatus the class set forth, comprising in combination, a valve, a movable element indirectly affected by the operation of'the 'valvc, said valve having a spring actuated valve stem urged outwardly to normally open the valve, a lever element having a connection with said movable clen'ient, aflexible lever edge associated with said valve stem and lover element and means car ried by the lever element for shaping said edge whereby said valve stem is adapted to be depressed by the movement of the lever element to vary the opening and closing movement of the valve according to the action of said movable element.

3. Apparatus of the class set forth, comprising in combination, a valve, a movable clement indirectly a t'fected by the operation of the valve, said valve having a spring actuated valve stem urged outwardly to normally open the valve, a lever element pivotally swung and having a flexible member against which the valve stem is normally urged as the lever swings, a connection between said lever element and said movable element whereby as the movable element moves the lever element slides said flexible member over said valve stem, and means for bending said flexible member to cause the desired'openin'g and closing movement of the valve in accordance with the movement of said movable element. I

4. In combination with a furnace having a burner and a draft opening, a closure movable to regulate said draft opening, a plurality'of valves controlling said burner and having independently operable control elements, aregulatorframe pivotally mounted on said valves and connected with said closure to be moved thereby, a flexible actuating member carried by said frame and associated with for each valve, and a series of screw adjustments for each actuating member adapted to effect the independent adjustment of the operation of each valve and cause the movement of all of the valves and draft closure in synchronism.

5. A valve regulator, comprising, in combination, a valve element having a valve actuator, a regulating element pivotally mounted to swing on said valve element and provided with a curved arm, a driving element with which said curved arm is connected, a flexible adjustable regulating lever edge carried by said arm and adapted to bear against said actuator to fii60l3 the opening and closing of said Valve element as the regulating element swings, adjusting screws bearing against said lever edge and by the turning of which the shape of said lever edge may be varied, and an indicator interposed between said regulating element and valve element for indicating t ie relative position of said adjusting screws as regards the contact between said lever edge and valve actuator.

6. A valve regulator, comprising, in combination, a valve having an actuating element, a driven element, a flexible movable regulating element connected with said driven element to be moved thereby and associated with said actuating element to govern the movement of the latter, and

means for adjusting the shape of said fleXible element to change the operation of said actuating element.

7. Valve regulating mechanism, comprising, in combination, a plurality of valves, a driven element, a regulating element associated with each valve for operating the latter and connected with said driven element to be moved thereby and independent means of adjustment for each of said regulating elements to vary the operation of each of said actuating elements.

8. Valve regulating mechanism, comprising, in combination, a plurality of valves, a driven element, a regulating element associated with each valve for operating the latter and connected with said driven element to be moved thereby and a series of adjustments for each of said regulating elements adapted to vary the operation of each of said actuating elements.

9. Valve regulating mechanism, comprising, in combination, a valve having an actuating element, a driven element, a flexible movable regulating element connected with said driven element to be moved thereby and associated with said actuating element to govern the movement of the latter, and a series of adjustments for shaping said flexible element to change the operation of said actuating element.

In witness whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

OSCAR E. FREEMAN. 

